Sri Lanka: Credibility of ‘domestic inquiry’ into war crimes questioned

BY ATHULA VITHANAGE-20 JUNE 2015

A leading international human rights watchdog has cast doubt over the credibility of Sri Lanka’s proposed domestic probe into alleged war crimes committed at the end the civil war in 2009. Responding to a statement by the country’s justice minister that Sri Lanka would establish a domestic mechanism ‘acceptable to the international community,’ Human Rights Watch (HRW) emphasised the need of international involvement as an essential requirement to deliver justice.

“This government has repeatedly said that it is committed to justice. For that, there will be need for impartial, international participation,” HRW South Asia Director, Meenakshi Ganguly told JDS. In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on the 15th of June HRW called upon Sri Lanka to ensure any mechanism to be international. As a ‘minimum measure’. HRW proposed to include a majority of international judges or prosecutors to establish a transparent justice and accountability process.

Domestic inquiry

Responding to the HRW request made at the UNHRC in Geneva, Justice Minister Wijayadasa Rajapaksha has said that Sri Lanka will go ahead with a domestic inquiry that would have a ‘credible mechanism acceptable to the international community’. Sri Lanka has also “sought the advice of eminent persons like Sir Desmond De Silva of UK who has a thorough knowledge on International Humanitarian Law,” Minister Rajapaksha has told the Daily Mirror in Colombo.

“Sri Lanka has unfortunately, a history of failed commissions through the decades of conflict,” Meenakshi Ganguly told JDS. “Even families of those that disappeared during the days of the JVP violence are yet to know what happened to their loved ones,” she recalled.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has told Sri Lankan authorities of the need for ‘transparent and inclusive processes to develop credible mechanisms for accountability and reconciliation’. In his opening statement to the 29th session of the Human Rights Council, Commissioner Al Hussein expressing an apparent preference for a Sri Lankan ‘mechanism’ said, “I encourage the Government to consult broadly with all political parties, civil society, and above all victims and their families, to ensure full national support and ownership of these processes.”

QC Silva

Queen’s Counsel Desmond De Silva, whose advice has been sought by the present Sri Lankan government led by Maithripala Sirisena, was appointed by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to head an International Advisory Council to the Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints Regarding Missing Persons. With the assistance of Sir Geoffrey Nice QC and Professor David Crane from the USA, QC Silva cleared the Sri Lankan armed forces of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the last phase of its war against Tamil Tigers.

Looking Back: The Role Of Civil Society

By Rajan Hoole –June 20, 2015 

Dr. Rajan Hoole

Law Enforcement and the Security Services: Politicisation and Demoralisation – 18

It is often the case that good intentions are derailed by a Government succumbing to paranoia and resorting to unlawful methods. Also contributing to this derailment are the public, the opposition and civil society, who, though in a better position to reflect on realities calmly, fail to exert a corrective influence. The second half of 1995 marked a crucial period during which the Kumaratunge government began using the Police in a manner that foreshadowed steady deterioration and by the year 2000 the Police Force was in shambles. It is well to remember that the public, opposition and the media who protest loudly today, at that time, in 1995, encouraged these same tendencies.

1994 to 1995

Going back, the first major human rights crisis faced by the PA government was the appearance of about 22 corpses in lakes and waterways around Colombo. This happened over a few weeks from mid-May 1995, after the LTTE recommenced the war. The President ordered an inquiry. To the relief of many the CID did a good job of it. It was found that the corpses were of Tamils tortured and strangled at the STF HQ in Bullers Road, where the Commandant, DIG Lionel Karunasena, had his office. The details were revealed by the IGP Rajaguru at a press conference at the end of August. Karunasena was transferred out. However, legal proceedings against the culprits were pursued unconvincingly and quietly dropped. But even this much was remarkable after 15 years of lawlessness. The failure to pursue the matter, however, once more underscored the fact that impunity will continue – this too was what the Press and the elite who spoke for the public then wanted.

DIG Kotakadeniya

Before going into the developments, we refer to two press items. The first is the article by a Senior Gazetted Officer titled ‘Police Commemoration Day’ which appeared in the Island of 5.9.94 to which reference was made in Chapter 18. It described the preferential treatment with financial rewards given to officers who led the way in mass murder during the late 1980s. It named 3 persons as gentlemanly victims sent out of the Force to make way for the meteoric rise of others. These three were Senior DIG W.B. Rajaguru and SSPs A.J. Iddamalgoda and Kingsley Wickremasooriya. All three were taken back by the PA government as Senior DIGs.

The Island writer made a strong case for DIG G.B. Kotakadeniya. He was posted to the Southern Range as DIG during the JVP insurgency in 1987. Discovering a large number of prisoners herded into cells at Hambantota in very inhuman conditions, he ordered the SSP to release those against whom there were no charges. For this, he was within two days transferred to the North Western Range. At Gampaha Police Station, he discovered that three young girls had been detained for 1 1/2 months without a matron and that even their statements had not been recorded. Realising that they had been used as ‘sex slaves’, he ordered them bailed out. For having acted according to the law, the political bosses demoted him to SSP and sent him on 1 1/2 years’ compulsory leave. Although exonerated and reinstated, he became junior to the SSP in Hambantota whom he had checked. The HQI in Gampaha who had detained the girls illegally, was found guilty by the Supreme Court in a fundamental rights petition filed by the girls, but he was then promoted and held the rank of SSP in 1994. The writer urged the new government as a top priority to use the “few genuine and honest” officers left in the Force to revamp its image and to “ease the vitriolic situation”.                                 Read More   

Annalechchamy, a Woman Leading Change on The Tea Plantations of Sri Lanka

By EU Delegation to Sri Lanka, European Union.-20/06/2015 

 Set in the Indian Ocean, the teardrop-shaped island state of Sri Lanka is known around the world for its picturesque landscapes, rich culture and aromatic tea. Accounting for a third of all tea produced globally, the world renowned “Ceylon Tea” was first grown by the British in Sri Lanka in the 1800s. It remains one of the country’s primary export earners and sources of employment.

Less well known is the history of Sri Lanka’s tea plantations, dating back over 150 years, which many regard as almost synonymous with colonial rule. Tamils of South Indian origin still make up a large proportion of Sri Lanka’s tea plantation workers. Their ancestors were brought to work in the sector primarily through a brutal historic system known as “bonded labour”. The consequences of this system are still felt, as many members of the tea plantation community find themselves ethnically, linguistically and economically marginalised.

One of these workers was Annalechchamy, a shy and unassuming young woman. Working on a tea plantation, she thought the conditions that generations of workers had experienced before her were never going to change. Like many within the plantation community, Annalechchamy had been deprived of even basic citizenship rights until the Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons Act was passed in 2003. She was afraid of even talking to the estate management, let alone negotiating workers’ rights. That was about to change.

‘Including the Excluded’, an initiative that works to improve the lives of the tea plantation workers, is implemented by CARE International and funded by the EU.  Annalechchamy is amongst its beneficiaries. Supported by the initiative, she has found her inner strength and confidence. With training in leadership and opportunities to participate in decision-making, Annalechchamy is now – step by step – working to overcome the parochial beliefs that discourage women from taking on positions of importance. Empowered by the project, she has become one of the first female, community-level trade union leaders. She is challenging the ways of life that had seemed set in stone.

Tea plantation in the Central Province.

Most importantly, she has grown to recognise that what she has to say is important and that she can influence change. Women in estates are extremely vulnerable and often face discrimination in families, communities and workplaces. Patriarchal practices confine women and men to specific roles, with women taking on less public and more subservient roles in their families and society despite their considerable contributions. Confined to the plucking of tea leaves, women like Annalechchamy were not only required to work longer hours and more days in a year than the men, they were also required to work in the open, often in difficult weather conditions. Anecdotal evidence has also indicated that gender-based violence is particularly high in the estates. However, abuse is rarely reported and social norms often excuse such behaviour. Limited understanding of recourse further prevents women from seeking help.

With Annalechchamy taking on the role of a trade union leader, the rigidly defined social roles have been challenged. She hopes that more issues pertaining to women will be discussed. Annalechchamy recounts: “I started as a volunteer, but after I received training, I am no longer scared to talk with the estate management… I speak freely!”

The estate managers have also embraced this change. Alex Samuel, then Group Manager of Carolina Estate, Watawala Plantations, said: “By being able to talk face to face in the Community Development Forums, both sides are beneficiaries. The workers understand our requirements better and can thus appreciate the position of the management on certain issues. Productivity has improved and labour issues are rare. From the workers’ perspective, they have direct access to the management and can directly explain their needs and explore ways in which management can help them.”

EU…..

Re-assessing President JR 

By Izeth Hussain-June 19, 2015

Some readers may wonder why I want to re-assess President JR, who belongs to a past that is dead, when there are so many urgent problems of the present that might be addressed by a weekly columnist. My answer is that the way we assess the past reflects the way we assess the present, and more importantly it also shapes our orientation to the future. There is a whole school of thought about history behind my view, which I hope to clarify later. At present it seems to me important, desperately important, to make a reassessment of President JR for this reason: he has harmed this country terribly in the past; we must try to ensure that he does not harm this country terribly in the future as well.

It seems to me important to take into account the personality traits of JR in making a re-assessment of him. I have earlier speculated on the possible influence of his ancestry on his politics. According to a widespread view there were uncertainties about his ancestry, which is why the Kandyan aristocracy refused to confer elite status on his family by marrying into it. Did that lead to a secret hatred of the Sinhalese people and did that induce him to play traitor in 1987? I believe that it is important in political analysis to raise such questions even though in the present state of knowledge no definitive answer may be possible. Two other personality traits also seem very relevant to the task of re-assessing him. He belonged essentially to what Eric Fromm categorized as the necrophiliac personality as he was driven to destruction and death. Blood started flowing as soon as he assumed office in 1977 and it was flowing in torrents by the time he relinquished it in 1988. The other trait is that he was evil. By evil I mean the propensity, or perhaps the compulsion, to damage and to destroy. JR, I think, was richly endowed with that compulsion.

It might seem that I am caricaturing JR. Actually I am being selective in noting only those traits that seem to have weighed in his politics. Outside that field he may well have been a genial and wholesome man. I acknowledge his enormous political ability which was shown by his charismatic performance at the San Francisco Peace Conference, and I would acknowledge also two of his mighty achievements. He was the first South Asian leader to understand that the state-centric economy could only bring further disaster and he moved away from it in a process that soon became irreversible. Furthermore he did not destroy the welfare system in that process. The other mighty achievement was I think theMahaveli Accelerated Program in which he showed a dynamism that has not been common among our leaders.

Here I come to the crux of this article: politicians should be judged by their achievements; not by their precepts but by their practice; not by their promises but by their performance; not by the cunning, deviousness, and duplicity of an old fox but by what the old fox actually achieved. It is meet and proper that a leader should be judged by his achievements in an age in which the achievement orientation is more valued among a people than anything else. What was JR’s record of achievement? At the time he assumed office in 1977 Sri Lanka was bright with promise. He set the economy on the right course, and all that he had to do was to solve the ethnic problem. That was not an insuperable problem in 1977: it could have been solved without much difficulty by granting a reasonable measure of devolution and allowing a fully functioning democracy to correct the inequities that had come to characterize our majority/minority relations. But in 1988 when JR relinquished office the situation facing Sri Lanka was this: there were two serious rebellions going on at the same time, that of the LTTE and the JVP, the IPKF troops were here behaving like a conquering army, and the Government had lost control over a third of the national territory and almost half the coastline. It seemed that the prophesy of the late Professor of History Karl Goonawardene had come true. It went something like this: "The problem is that JR hates the people of this country, and since that is so he can only bring disaster to this country".

JR’s great failures were in the fields of the ethnic problem and democracy, both of which are in reality integrally connected. I have been arguing since around 1993 that JR was the originator of the ethnic problem in its militant violent form. There were no ethnic riots from 1958 to 1977, but thereafter there was State terrorism under his aegis which reached its apogee in 1983, and it was that that led to a quarter century of civil war. I have recently argued in an article – I will not therefore repeat my arguments in any detail – that by preventing the extension of the Vadamarachchi campaign he was responsible for the extension of the war by twenty two years at the cost of a hundred thousand deaths. It is arguable that India was responsible for that by coercing JR to abandon military operations after Vadamarachchi. But I believe that I have established convincingly enough that JR has to bear the primary responsibility because he could have successfully resisted that coercion with the support of the international community: 1) India would not have dared invade Sri Lanka because of food shortages in Jaffna that were easily corrigible. 2) The international community would have acknowledged that the SL Government had the primordial duty of putting down an armed rebellion by military means. 3) The irritant of supposed special Sri Lanka/US relations did not count because by 1987 the US was in collusion with India over Sri Lanka.

JR was the originator of the ethnic problem in its violent form after 1983, and he was at least partly responsible for the extension of the war after 1987. It is arguable that his virtual destruction of democracy played an important role in that extension. According to K.M. de Silva’s Sri Lanka and the Defeat of the LTTE the Vadamarachchi operation became one of the forgotten episodes of the war and the orthodoxy came to be established that the war was "unwinnable". That was the conventional wisdom, the almost unchallenged orthodoxy, that prevailed for a long period both locally and in the international community. It is understandable that that orthodoxy went together with a defeatist mentality, if not for which the war could have been concluded much earlier than in 2009. But for that, Vadamarachchi had to be remembered and General Ranatunge and others who thought like him had to speak out. That was not possible under the quasi-dictatorship instituted by JR. According to de Silva, in his retirement General Ranatunge used to speak about the success of the Vadamarachchi operation to his visitors, "especially those whom he trusted to be discreet ….". Evidently he believed that it would be dangerous to make public all he knew about Vadamarachchi.

In this article I have not of course tried to make a re-assessment of JR. I have merely tried to provide some pointers, or rather raise some questions, about how we should go about that task. It seems important to take some of his personality traits into account. Did the stories about his ancestry influence his politics? Certainly his State terrorism which transformed the ethnic problem into an extremely violent one suggests a necrophiliac personality driven by a will to death and destruction. Several facts about him suggest that he was an evil person who took pleasure in harming and destroying people. The way he went about restructuring the Judiciary, making some Supreme Court Judges walk the streets, and the later episode in which the houses of SC judges were stoned, showed intent not just to control the Judiciary but to humiliate it. A whole huge tome can be written to show that he was a thoroughly unsavory character.

How on earth has it come about that JR has earned a positive reputation as an old fox when the truth is that he left behind a record of gigantic disaster? It may be that that positive reputation prevails only or mainly among UNP supporters, but my question remains valid. I believe that the answer has to be found in our modern history. We had a century of peace from 1848 to 1948, and we got Independence without anything worth calling a struggle. Consequently British power was inherited by a political class that was unheroic, mean-spirited, self-regarding, pusillanimous. Understandably that class found its greatest hero in Sir Oliver Goonetilleke who was admired above all for his shrewdness. Likewise JR is admired for his cunning. We must re-assess our modern history and figures such as JR in order to re-orient our political values and go forward towards a wholesome modernity.

Privatised Charity & Systemic Poverty: Two Incompatibles In Neo-Liberal Economic Paradise!

By Ameer Ali –June 19, 2015 

Dr. Ameer Ali

A systematic and unrelenting attack by neo-liberal economic orthodoxy on New-Deal-modelled economic structures built after WWII has made poverty systemic and left the onus of its eradication in the hands of private charity. Governments’ shift of priorities and programs from people to market, from households to corporations and from welfare to growth has created this horrendous outcome. The public sector has been progressively denigrated and rolled back to make way for private sector to expand and encroach into what was once consensually accepted as the legitimate terrain of state management, such as education, health care and welfare of the old and vulnerable. This radical transformation in economic priorities was undertaken in the name of economic efficiency and growth. In the course of this conversion even the vocabulary of budgetary allocations to health and education has been changed from investment to expenditure. In short, the neo-liberal phase of capitalism ushered in in the 1980s under a more fashionable cliché of globalization has made economic growth and poverty inseparable twins.

The global economic record of the past four decades – since this orthodoxy was enthroned by ‘Washington Consensus’ and its comprador intellectuals as the most desirable economic design ever invented by humanity – has exposed the hollowness of its promise of prosperity for all on the one hand and the stark reality of a class war pushed from the top by governments backed by a powerful corporate elite. However does one care to read the available economic and income data one cannot escape the horrible fact that the richest 20 per cent of the world population consumes 90 per cent of goods produced, while the poorest 20 per cent shares just 1 per cent. The Credit Suisse Research Institute in its 2013 report on wealth distribution among the world’s adult population carries this startling truth: Of a total 4,666 million adults and a total wealth valued at 241 trillion, a staggering 83 per cent of the latter is owned by a tiny 8.4 per cent of adults leaving the rest 91.6 per cent to share the remaining 17 per cent. An Oxfam report points out further that the wealth of the 85 richest people in the world is equal to the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion, and that since late 1970s, tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29 out of 30 countries for which data are available. It is now public knowledge that the giant corporations do not fulfil their tax obligations in the jurisdictions in which they earn their profit. Their transfer pricing mechanism is a deliberate device to dodge taxes.Read More

DISTURBING FLOOD OF JOURNALISTS FLEEING INTO EXILE

PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2015.

To mark World Refugee Day, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is offering an overview of its activities in support of journalists in difficulty in 2014, when scores of journalists fled abroad to escape violence in countries such as Syria and Libya, or political crackdowns in countries such as Ethiopia and Azerbaijan.

The figures previously published by RSF in its annual round-up showed that twice as many journalists fled abroad in 2014 as in 2013. And the haemorrhaging is continuing in 2015. It is clear that silencing journalists by forcing them to flee into exile is more than ever part of the repressive arsenal used by the media’s enemies.

No continent is being spared by this trend. The causes may vary – armed conflict in Libya and Syria, or targeted persecution by governments in Ethiopia and Azerbaijan – but the result is the same. Crises develop, spread and take root.

More than 300 Syrian professional and citizen-journalists have fled abroad to escape systematic reprisals since the start of the conflict in Syria. At least 43 Libyan journalists fled their country in 2014. Right now, RSF is closely monitoring the situation in Burundi, where journalists have fled abroad to escape the grave acts of violence against the media that have accompanied the political crisis there.

RSF tries to assist all journalists who are forced to flee their country, helping these men and women to find a safe refuge or to cope with their most urgent needs because they are the victims of their commitment to freedom of information.

And because of the scale of this phenomenon, RSF is working with other international and regional NGOs that defend media freedom and support human rights defenders.

Around 80% of the assistance grants allocated by RSF in 2014 went to individuals, many of them journalists who have fled abroad. But RSF also helps independent media and NGOs that continue to provide information despite being exposed to violence and crackdowns. In fact, they received more than 75% of what RSF spent on assistance in 2014.

Find all the figures for RSF’s assistance activity on: 20juin.rsf.org

Taking in to custody still continues at the Katunayake airport

Saturday, 20 June 2015 

Former LTTE carders who come from the Middle East following employment still be taken into custody from the airport TNA emphasize.

According to our statistics 18 such people has been taken in to custody for the last five months. Two people has been released said Batticaloa District TNA Parliament MP P. Ariyanethram.

The MP further said “There are people who joined LTTE voluntarily and involuntarily, later they voluntarily got out to get married and lived a normal life. They went to the Middle East due to hardships. There are people who has come for holidays and gone during the former president’s period among the people who were arrested”

A complaint
MP Ariyanethram said yesterday a relative complained to him that a person named Kandapodi Thawarajah a 36 year old father of two kids was taken into custody in the Katunayake Airport.

When we inquired from his wife Sasikala Thawarajah she said she complained to the Human Rights Commission on Thursday.

Describing what happened she said “My husband has arrived at the Katunayake airport at 1.30. My brother has gone to receive him. Around 5P my brother got a call and said this call is from the TID (Terrorist Investigative Department). They said they are taking him for questioning. They told us to come and take his goods”

Name list
MP Ariyanethram said that they have spoken about these arrests in the parliament. He said he has given a list of names of the people who got arrested to Minister John Amarathunga at his request.

When we inquired about this from the Police media spokesperson Ruwan Gunasekara he said that he would inquire about these if there is any information of such arrests.

Corrupt members of the Southern Provincial Council wastes 4.2 million of public money for a 'Fun' in a Pasikuda hotel

(Lanka-e-News- 19.June.2015, 11.30PM) Ignoring the people’s burning priority the ministers and the MP’s of the southern provincial council in order to learn about the 19th and the 20th constitutional amendments has organized a two day workshop at the Pasikuda Hotel situated in Trincomalee on the 13th and 14th of this month. A group of MP’s in the southern PC and the people have shown their resentment for this workshop which was organized by the southern provincial secretariat which has spent a sum of Rs. 4.2 million. 

When there are plenty of ways available for these corrupt MP’s to learn about the 19th and 20th amendments in the mass media these MP’s who don’t have at least the opportunity to bring a proposal or use their votes for these amendments and who don’t have the means to provide a piece of chalk to the school children’s in the south and when there are plenty of places available in the south to host this workshop, it is absurd hosting this workshop in a far distance which is a waste of public money.

Meantime there was a musical show performance by the Ranwala Corpse on the 13th night in the hotel and these MP’s who has boozed heavily is reported to have a taken great fun from public money.

31 government ministers including the chief minister, 12 UNP MP’s, 1 JVP MP and 2 Mp’s of the Democratic Party have been participated. Two ruling party ministers, 4 JVP MP’s and the opposition leader from the UNP has not joined.

By -Dakshina Gallage

---------------------------
by     (2015-06-20 00:04:18)

The President vetoes SLFP ticket to ‘Bring Mahinda Back’! What next? 

by Rajan Philips-June 20, 2015

It seemed official and final when the media reported that President Sirisena has rejected the supplications to let his predecessor run for Prime Minister. Leave aside becoming PM, there will be no SLFP ticket for Mahinda Rajapaksa, or a spot on the National List, even to become an MP. Not to be outdone, the former President is said to have indicated his intention to form his own group and run for parliament (and for PM). The latest development is that the six-member SLFP nomination committee has unanimously decided to recommend to the President, his veto notwithstanding, that Mahinda Rajapaksa be nominated as the SLFP’s ‘candidate for Prime Minister’. The SLFP MPs in parliament cannot have it both ways. Either they are with the former President and looking to the past, or they are with the current President and looking ahead to the future. Their division will determine the fate of the 20th Amendment, whether it gets passed in parliament or is left to lapse without even coming to a vote. It will also determine the shape of political alliances competing in the upcoming parliamentary election.

The President Vetoes SLFP Ticket to ‘Bring Mahinda Back’! What Next by Thavam Ratna

Punishment Transfer In Sri Lanka Is Thailand

By Asanga Abeyagoonasekera –June 20, 2015

Asanga Abeygoonasekera

“Rather leave the crime of the guilty unpunished than condemn the innocent” Cicero

In a rather strange development at the Ministry of external affairs for the appointment of Kshenuka Senewiratne as Ambassador to Thailand who has questioned this author( see the following letter)and presented much trouble as Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, when independent writing was produced against or advising Mahinda Rajapaksa over his term as President. She was the closes to Sajin Vass Gunawardena and did everything possible to destroy our foreign relations image. At the Parliament debate according to Sajith Premadasa who clearly stated it was Sajin Vaas Gunawardena who was the inventor of slap diplomacy a new art something similar to hard and soft diplomacy. When speaking regarding this matter with Anura Kumara Dissanayake the JVP leader he said “now the punishment transfer is Thailand”. The following letter was issued by Kshenuka requesting me to stop writing against Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. If you read the two essays I have written clearly to advise Mahinda Rajapaksa to do the right thing not to take him out of power.

It was a team of close ill advisors who got Mahinda Rajapaksa out including Kshenuka. She put an end to our reconciliation conferences at Kadirgamar Institute blocking all our funds basically asking us not to do anything. When foreign secretaries such as Romesh Jayasinghe and Amunugama assisted to develop the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute an important area for the Ministry what she did was the reverse. All research staff who has been kicked out by Minister Mangala Samaraweera from January wonder what they are doing at the institute without any staff.

In our neighbour India, while political appointees may be asked to leave when a new Minister is appointed, competent junior staff who are necessary for the continuation of work are retained to keep the wheels of State turning even at transition. When this author complained regarding this to a strong UNP political leader he said goto Minister of Good Governance and complain. Now six months have gone and most of the researchers are working at other think tanks and has no interest to join government think tank again due to this. We raised the statue of this great man Lakshman Kadirgamar which was dumped for many years at the Institute car park to show that such incredible men of great value who sacrificed their life deserve a better place.                         Read More

President, Milinda Moragoda brought together!

Saturday, 20 June 2015

On recommendations by the US and western diplomatic missions, President Maithripala Sirisena is to appoint Milinda Moragoda as his international affairs advisor, a position which he held under ex-president Mahinda Rajapaksa too, says sources at the president’s office. Yesteday afternoon (19), minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena took Moragoda to meet the president. At this meeting, president Sirisena and Moragoda had extensive discussions on the dialogue foreign affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera had with Tamil diaspora groups in London recently, and what impact it would have on the upcoming general election.

It is Sirasa Media Network chief Raja Mahendran alias Killy Maharaja who has played a key role in bringing president Sirisena and Moragoda together. His ulterior motive in doing that was to destroy minister Samaraweera, his key enemy, other than Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Already, the president has Dr. Chris Nonis and lawyer Shiral Lakthilake as his international affairs advisors. The sources told us that the president was certain to, either grant an opportunity to Moragoda to contest the parliamentary polls or appoint him on the national list. Killy has already promised Moragoda that he would fully support him in that regard.

38 kilos gold of Kataragama temple vanish ! Sashindra, Neelanga Dela or Commissioner the culprit ? SL blue brigade advances to rob deities too..!

(Lanka-e-News- 20.June.2015, 4.30PM) A new Basnayake Nilame was appointed to the Kataragama Maha Devale (temple) with the stepping down of Sashindra Rajapakse from that post .When such a post is accepted by a new nilame , the primary duty when a successor takes over is , the predecessor must entrust all his tasks  along with the fixed  assets and valuables of the temple to the successor . The responsibility to ensure this duly is shouldered by the Buddhist affairs commissioner  fully monitored by the government.

When the new chief incumbent D.P. Kumarage took over his duties recently from Sashindra , in the inventory of the temple assets there was no account of 38 kilos of gold meaning that this huge quantity of gold have gone missing !  When inquiries were  made , Sashindra’s answer was , he does  not know about this missing gold , and he did not take over that quantity of gold. 

It is Pradeep Neelanga Dela the present Diyawadana Nilame of Sri Dalada Maligawa of Kandy who was Sashindra’s predecessor  at Kataragama temple.

Based on reports reaching Lanka e news , the commissioner for Buddhist affairs has proposed a ‘Goda perakoduruwa’ ( a black coated shark)  to suppress the ‘great sacred activities’ of the two rogues of the notorious  ‘Blue brigade’. This outrageous  robbery has taken place during the period when Pradeep Neelanga Dela the temple rogue of the blue brigade was the Kataragama Devale chief incumbent. Citing the grounds    the Kataragama deity’s protection had diminished , (perhaps the deity knew a too clever and cunning rogue has taken over the Devale activities) ,  this gold was transferred to the  custody of Saman Devale , Ratnapura . 

Meanwhile  a spurious  drama was enacted that the Saman Devale was broken into  by rogues , and a well calculated  squalid tale was  concocted that the rogues had spirited away the gold .

Truly speaking , if the security at the Kataragama Devale had declined , what the chief incumbent should have done was, informed the government , and sought advice through the commissioner for the protection of the gold via the State bank , Central bank of Ceylon. 

These procedures were not followed because , for Neelanga Dela  who is a notorious crook from the days he was a district secretary and  the current Buddhist commissioner the accomplice in this robbery , the rare golden opportunity to rob the gold had knocked at their doors. They realized this is the opportunity to give full force and play to their innate ruthless thieving skills and talents regardless of who they are robbing - man , temple or even the deity  they are worshipping. 

No matter what , it is no secret now , from the president to the cabinet including the Buddha sasana minister are fully aware ,it is the commissioner for Buddhist affairs who is responsible and accountable for this outrageous robbery , though politicians robbing national wealth , now unfolding on a monumental scale and impoverishing the people under the last regime  is as bad or even worse.

It is the view of the residents in the vicinity of the Ratnapura Saman Devale, the claims  that rogues gained entry into this Devale which does not have even an aperture for a monkey to enter , and robbed this large quantity of gold and invaluable blue precious stones is the joke of the century. 

In a country where politicians engage in heroin and ethanol deals , pillage national wealth including  Tsunami funds , Divi neguma funds , children’s education funds etc. unconscionably and with impunity mind you with state patronage  , the Temple incumbents or  the Basnayake Nilames  the so called sentinels of Buddhist temples and their assets creeping through the crossed legs of the deities to rob temple assets springs  no great surprise . 

Be that as it may, but  the raging question now raised by the helpless  and hapless masses of the country is : what steps is  the government of good governance with all its initial grandiose and grandiloquent claims that it will stamp out corruption , crooks and criminals going to take, to stand by its grand  promises to the people . Of course , the government of good governance may not have made promises (broken or otherwise) to deities , yet can it just stand idle and watch all these crimes committed by these Basnayake Nilames against the silent , inarticulate deities who cannot stage voluble protests against these rascals and scoundrels.

May we remind, not only the masses even the inarticulate deities are watching intently as to what measures the government of good governance which made solemn promises and pledges to live up to its name and hopes of the people  going to take . Is it going to take the side of the daylight robbers , or at least from now on take the side of the deities and the people? Going by the latest unsavory and shameless  trends of blatantly and brazenly protecting proven criminals and crooks, with state patronage , much response cannot be expected from the government is the conviction of the people.  

---------------------------
by     (2015-06-20 11:42:34)

"How can UPFA nominate MR as prime ministerial candidate?," asks Maithri

The people have rejected him for bad governance and corruption 

by Zacki Jabbar-June 20, 2015

President Maithripala Sirisena, breaking his silence for the first time, has told SLFP seniors that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa cannot be nominated as the UPFA’s prime ministerial candidate because he had been rejected by the people for running  a lawless and corrupt government.

"How do you expect me to nominate Mahinda as our prime ministerial candidate when the vast majority of people have voted against him for not adhering to good governance, rule of law and the unprecedented corruption that prevailed under his rule," the president had asked Rajapaksa loyalists pushing the "Bring Back Mahinda" line, informed sources said yesterday.

Sirisena had explained that he had been elected to office on a pledge to re-establish democratic governance, enforce the rule of law and eliminate the massive corruption that had occurred during Rajapaksa’s watch.

"It is unreasonable for you’ll to be mediating on behalf of a person who has been rejected by the masses. How, can I act in direct contravention of my election manifesto which was endorsed by over six million people?" the president had asked.

Saying that the political picture should not be read from numbers at public meetings alone, the president had said that many people now know much about the massive corruption under the Rajapaksas they were ignorant of during the last presidential election.

"They would give a fitting reply were Mahinda to run for public office once again," he has said.

Mahinda owes the SLFP for elevating him to the positions of Oppostition Leader, Minister , Prime Minister and President and it was now time for him to show his gratitude to the party.

He was now a joint patron of the SLFP and must not hold the party to ransom ultimately benefiting the UNP, the president had stressed.

Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said last week that President Sirisena had no objection to Rajapaksa campaigning on behalf of the SLFP-led UPFA; but the party would neither give him nomination to run for election nor appoint him to Parliament on the National List.